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I am trader with 15 years of day trading experience and this market is unlike anything I`ve ever seen. In short, it ain`t like it used to be. It has become such a random, illogical and dare i say, manipulated game, that I`ve had tremendous difficulty making and keeping profits for the past year. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but a stock market that has gone up 70% with no volume, low inflows and consistent insider selling, leads me to believe that the US government (through the NY Fed and the prop desks of Goldman Sachs, JPM, and other crooks) is manufacturing this rally while simultaneously (and intentionally) killing the USD. They have an agenda here, to pay back their trillions of dollars of debt with depreciated (i.e. worthless) dollars and to get all the people who were spooked by last year`s downside action, fully invested again, so that they can once again pull the rug out from under their feet for a final time. Whether this happens in 2 weeks or 2 years from now, it WILL happen. So, in the meantime, if you keep your positions extremely small, and your stops tight, you can take your experiment to the next level. Perhaps even try swing trading to start (establishing positions for weekly/biweekly trades) rather than active day-trading per se. Like i said, the whipsaws are atrocious now with the HFT (high frequency trading) algorithms. Honestly, it`s never been more scary (or rigged) than it is today. So, if you can find success trading today, you will be a rockstar trader in the future. Just don`t bet the farm and get burned like I have on many occasions. Learn from my mistakes, stay disciplined and robotic, and you might enjoy yourself.

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Day trading the E-mini futures is a skill that is learned from practice. Open a sim account with a futures broker and start trading 1 contract. Get a feel for how the ES price action moves, which is much more volatile than the SPY. Notice that the ES tends to move down on high volume days and higher on low volume days. Use your stochastics and MACD for basic oversold and overbought setups, but pay close attention to the candlesticks themselves. Watch for engulfing candles and dojis.

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Day trading the e-mini futures, specifically the ES contract which follows the S&P 500 index, can be highly profitable if you are extremely disciplined and never overtrade or take to large of a position. The market today is filled with volatility and whipsaw moves controlled largely by computers and high frequency trading programs. Do not try to play breakout moves, instead it is better to fade new highs as the sell programs often come in at new highs and after spike up buy stop runs. If you are a multiple contract trader, try to take profits on your first contract after a point or two, then hold your runners for a few more points. Always use stops, but do not place them too close to your position price as market makers will likely eat them up before making a run.

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Do you have a futures broker yet? That`s the first thing you need! There are many online discount brokers available. Mirus, Interactive Brokers etc. Look for one that has good third-party software integration so that you can use charting software like ninjatrader and your broker just for execution.

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Your best bet is to take some online day trading classes or join a day chat room to learn the basics . Every pro has a different method for success. Some use Fibonacci retracements, some use momentum, some are swing traders. Lots of options.

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the only way to day trade is to take small positions and set your profit targets before the open. you need to have a game plan going into the trading day. one of the safer, high probability setups is to only look for a trade at the extensions, say the 2nd or 3rd standard deviation. and look for a retrace to the vwap.

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Don`t forget about getting the right, real-time, futures data feed, too. Since many traders prefer using tick charts, you will want to look for a data provider that gives you fast, unfiltered ticks. This is very important! Esignal, DTN.IQ and ZenFire are the best ones I`ve found so far. Good luck.

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The E mini futures are a phenomenal instrument for day trading. They reference the S&P 500 and give you incredible leverage and liquidity for trading the index. For example, each point in the ES is actually worth $50, so buying 1 contract at 1100.00 and selling it a 1104 gives you $200. As for strategies, there are a number of books that deal with day trading for a living. Out of experience, I`ve found that it is best for beginners to start with a sim account (simulated) before you start to use real money, since moves in the ES can be sudden and explosive. The use of stops is important, too. Because, the big traders can turn the index on a dime when they want to. But be careful not to make your stops too tight, else the market makers will "stop you out" (meaning, grab your orders) so often that you will never be in a trade long enough to make any money. One of my favorite, high probability setups is The First Pullback setup. Basically, watch for the index to make a new swing high or low, and then buy or sell the first pullback (retrace) after that move.

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It`s tough to make money and keep it today with all of the HFT (High Frequency Traders ), and the NY Fed skewing the bias. I`ve never seen a more manipulated market than the one we are in right now. Fading or shorting stocks is a death wish right now as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Credit Suisse and the other frontrunning traders working on behalf of the Fed will eat you alive. Good luck making money. Keep your positions small and stick to conservative investments.

If you want to learn how to day trade the e-mini futures, just follow what the Ben Bernanke brigade are doing, which is buying, buying, buying. Do not attempt to fade (or sell) this market unless the idea of being run over by a freight train excites you. Buy all dips, especially the fast ones. If you`ve noticed, the slow grind up that this bull market market has undergone is exactly the kind of fake out that the market makers like to throw at you. You haven`t seen any 250 point up days on the Dow, have you? When you see fast and violent down moves, you have to buy them because this is just the market makers trying to shake you out. Now, when you start to see a slow grind down, with the Dow and S&P 500 going down nice and slow (say, 0.5% everyday), then you know that the trend has changed.

I just read that Shia LaBeouf originally posted this question while preparing for his upcoming role in Wallstreet. I think it`s so cool that started his day trading education on this site. I guess you never know who is really asking the questions on these sites, uh? I wondered if he got in touch with the person who helped him and hooked him up with some sweet commission?

Emini futures trading is a completely different animal than stock trading. If you are looking to trade futures or commodity futures for a living, then you are in for a wild ride. Even the most disciplined futures traders have been burned this year and last with this whipsaw, roller coaster market. Online day trading sounds like a fun endeavor and, indeed, it can be, but you need to understand that it is also a stressful job filled with hours of boredom and punctuated by moment of sheer terror. The world of electronic day trading is fast, furious and enough to drive even a sober man to drink. I would recommend you take some day trading courses to learn about the Dow and S&P futures, as well as, commodities like oil futures. If you can even open a simulation or paper trading account with a futures broker before you start with real money, and this is advisable.

Markets only fall for political reasons, not economic ones. When this pig of a market finally collapses the media outlets like CNBC will blame it on one of the following or a combination: 1) Terrorism. 2) Problems in foreign countries. 3) Wall street greed. ----- They will not ever say that a selloff is due to the fact that this is a bloated BS market where all the buying is US government related. Nor will the Obama government ever take blame for a drop, as they will deflect all criticisms of their policies and instead blame Greece, blame fake terrorists and blame Goldman Sachs, who they are now trying to distance themselves from because of the Obama government`s still low approval rating.

Futures trading is more of an art than a science. If you trade commodities or emini futures on a daily basis, you know how much of a random walk it can be. Buy and sell orders seemingly come out of nowhere and move the market suddenly and violently. So, you can make a living working from home as a day trader but don`t look to short until the market shows that it wants to selloff for an extended period.

Check out some of the online day trading teaching sites before you jump in with real money. You can get broke fast trading futures, because of the leverage factor. It is best to start with a demo account and trade with simulation dollars in real time.

How can I turn $20,000 into $250,000 like Shia Labeouf did by day trading the e-mini futures ? I want to learn this so bad. He`s no smarter than me, so if he did it, I can make money from home in my pajamas too. Can you recommend some books for me to read as a beginner?

Save your money! Don`t try to day trade, you will get eaten alive by the market manipulators who see your stops and who will shake you out till your are penniless. This is a crooked market, rigged by the highest of the high. Unless you have friends at Goldman Sachs feeding you information, stay away.

Day trading strategies come and go. The key is to buy undervalued stocks and hold them until they are fully valued. The problem of course is trying to determine when a stock is cheap or expensive.